The newspaper that published spoof news releases

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Blogging minister Tom Harris has an amusing story from his days as a student journalist on a local Scottish newspaper. The rival newspaper, in the same town, had even fewer staff and less time to re-write or check news releases submitted to it. So the enterprising hacks at Tom’s paper invented a fake local charity and wrote weekly spoof news releases, which would duly be printed in their rival paper, despite the fact that anyone reading them should have spotted the numerous clues that it was a spoof.

Becky joins Wolfstar on work experience

Hello everyone! My name is Becky, and I have just started on work placement here at Wolfstar. I graduated last July from Leeds University with a degree in English and Philosophy, and I have spent the last ten months gaining work experience and trying to get the hang of this being-a-grown-up thing!

I have always had a keen interest in media, and since joining City Sound hospital radio at Leeds General Infirmary three years ago, I have specifically developed an interest in radio. I have my own weekly show at City Sound, and I really enjoy the creative freedom I have to write, produce and deliver my own show.

I have previously worked for the commercial radio station The Pulse as a weekend events assistant, helping to raise awareness and promote the brand image of the station. I have also been on work placement at Yorkshire Radio, BBC Radio Kent, and more recently Virgin Radio. During my time at these stations I developed an interest in PR, and hence I am exploring this interest here at Wolfstar.

Wolfstar has given me a fantastic opportunity to work alongside the team and gain knowledge and experience of PR and Social Media. All in all, I’m very excited to be here and have the opportunity to learn about the PR and Social Media industry and maybe they can learn a little something about radio from me!

Wolfstar formally welcomes Beth Jones to its team

For those of you who regularly read the blog, you will know we have had a friendly final year journalism student called Beth Jones working with us on a part-time work experience basis.

We have been so impressed with Beth’s writing ability, friendly nature and interest levels in social media and public relations that we have offered her an account executive position here at Wolfstar until she goes on her travels across America.

Beth starts formally from today and will be helping with anything and everything - so expect quite a few more blog posts and comments in the near future.

This of course does mean we now have two Beths in the office which could become confusing but don’t worry I am sure the team here can handle it if you can.

All joking aside, congratulations Beth well done and welcome to our team.

Should the term social media be killed?

This was the proposition expressed by Steve Rubel on his Micro Persuasion blog. The basis for his argument being that the evolvement of media which has created terms such as social media and user generated content should all be encompassed under the single heading of ‘media’. Rubel writes, “It’s like we’re a separate entity from the rest of the so-called "mainstream" journalists, filmmakers, photographers, etc. who do what we do and get paid more for it. We sit in a special dish like leftover meatloaf so we need a special name.”

I can see where Rubel is coming from in that bloggers and mavens alike want to be given equal credit for their reporting of news, information and opinion. However, I do not agree with him. These categories exist for very good reasons. Take the term ‘user generated content’ which envelops all manner of material from photos to articles, much of which can be extremely entertaining. However journalists, filmmakers and photographers earn their money for a reason. This reason being their knowledge. As a broadcast journalism student I have spent three long years training in a specific field, which could be stretched further by a masters, or an internship, or experience in working for a news network. Therefore I would hope that after three years of training and possibly, twenty years in the industry (if I were to enter into a career in journalism) I would know more than the average Joe. This is why terms such as ‘user generated content’ exist and similarly I feel my colleagues would hope their skills were honed, and perhaps even superior, to professionals working in other fields. I’m sure there are a number of photographers out there who couldn’t navigate their way around the blogosphere to the same effect as an accomplished blogger.

For another view see Helena Makhotlova’s blog.

Is investigative journalism dead?

As a broadcast journalism student, journalism is a topic close to my heart; however I feel the need to ask myself why I am looking to a career in PR instead. First and foremost, is the move away from muckraking journalism which brought governments to right; here I am obviously thinking of the infamous Watergate Scandal. I’m sure Woodward and Bernstein started a revolution among young journalists in the hope that they too would have the chance to change the world using a secret source named ‘Deep Throat’.

It was in this Golden Age that the media really lived up to its name as the fourth estate. But in the modern age investigative journalism can simply not survive within the press. Commercial pressures are forcing resources and cash to be stretched to the point that no, or at least very few, editors are willing to take a risk on expensive investigations. Phillip Knightley explains that it all began with the death of the print unions, and was subsequently made worse by the arrival of media law firms. I particularly like Knightley’s quote from Rupert Murdoch just after he ended the editorial budgets on the Times Newspapers, “Never give journalists a budget. The b******s will spend every penny of it." Just give them a news agenda instead, yeah?

Today, investigative journalism has moved over to television, with the technological age paving the way for the ‘undercover documentary’. Prime time spots are filled with reporters donning hidden cameras and mini-mics, in their quest for justice. I am not objecting to this kin d of journalism, don’t get me wrong I enjoy this type of programming as much as any other, yet I can’t help feeling like saying “Is this the best we can do?”

This is not the only problem. It is clear journalism is in decline across the spectrum – for one, Politics has been made into a melodramatic soap opera and ultimately caused the public to become more concerned with trivial rubbish. It was not long ago that Blair’s new haircut made the front pages and Cameron’s dabble with cannabis in his teens caused national uproar.

So with the Internet taking the world by storm and the emergence of social networking taking over could UGC (User Generated Content) become the new method of journalism? (In 2006 Ofcom’s communications market report revealed that 41 per cent of all UK Internet users aged 25 and over have a social website homepage. This is in addition to the 70 per cent of all 16-24 year olds signed-up to social networking sites.)

To this I would answer no, despite the lack of faith I have expressed in modern journalism, I still believe it plays a vital role in our democracy. There might be less catastrophic wrongdoings uncovered and more conformist reports in today’s news output, but there are still a lot of journalists risking their lives and fulfilling their role whole-heartedly to bring all of us, the news.

Is 21 the perfect age?

Hi my name’s Beth Jones and I’ve just started a work placement at Wolfstar.  Although I have almost finished studying for a Broadcast Journalism degree at the University of Leeds,  I have decided that PR is the way forward and what better place to start learning than at Wolfstar.

Finishing uni is just starting to sink in and it’s a horrible thought, despite this I have come to the conclusion that 21 is the perfect age, or at least with my limited experience I think it is. After my holiday in Atlanta this Easter visiting my folks I realised that I must appreciate every minute of being 21. I could see the nostalgia engulfing my dad as he rattled off stories from the good old days. The one which stuck in my head, and probably the one he was most passionate about, was his drunken antics on his 21^st birthday while posted by the RAF in the Borneo jungle.

Clearly I have already had the brilliant experience of visiting Atlanta this year. Apart from the lovely weather and friendly people, there is so much else that makes it such a great city. Firstly there was the scintillating dinner at the renowned Sundial restaurant, then there is the endless number of shops in Lennox Square but my favourite activity, which any visitor to Atlanta must do is visit the Turner Field  for a Braves game. I was a baseball virgin before this trip but having watched my first game, I’m hooked! Even if you don’t want to get immersed in the game itself there is so else much to do, the best part had to be watching the crowd on the big screen, laughing and waving desperately once they realised they had been caught by the camera. Ahhh good memories!

Not only does being 21 and a student allow the freedom to travel, it grants you the luxury of time. So my next venture is likely to be a festival. As an avid fan of Global Gathering (having been three years on the trot) I think it’s time to spread my wings. However this poses a problem, as I look to fellow friends hoping for some guidance in what to do, I end up torn between Barcelona’s Sonar festival  and Benicassim near Valencia. Hmmm who knows? Any advice? Either way it’s going to be an experience not to be missed!

If your looking for something a bit different, check out the Guardian’s guide to ‘20 British festival’s you’ll never have heard of’.

All I know is I won’t stay 21 forever and as my final summer of ‘no work and all play’ draws nearer I am on a mission to make it the best yet before I embark on my journey into the depths of the world of PR.

Save Scrabulous!

I have never been a big fan of board games, Scrabble in particular was definitely my least favourite, I could never understand how the slow pace and debates over if a word was real or not could be called fun.

After turning down numerous invites to an application called Scrabulous on Facebook I finally gave it a try the other week. This game looks almost like Scrabble, it has the same board, numbered letters and the same set of rules. I presumed that it had been made by the same people as an attempt to reach new markets. I ended up spending most of my evening on it and now can’t help playing every time I’m near my computer, its more addictive than Facebook.

Over the weekend I read an article in The New York Times about how this new phenomena was actually made by two brothers who had nothing to do with the creation of the original game. Hasbro and Mattel (the joint owners of the Scrabble trademark) have denounced Scrabulous as piracy and threatened legal action against its creators hoping to have it shut down.

I’m finding myself torn between who I agree more with. On one hand I can understand the anger and frustration of Hasbro and Mattel and why they want it to be shut down. But, at the same time, this new development has shown them a great market opportunity that they might not have realised. Scrabulous currently has 658,461 daily active users, that’s 22% of the total users of Facebook. Tens of thousands of users have joined ‘Save Scrabulous’ groups, threatening to boycott Hasbro and Mattel products if this application is removed. As an addict myself I am hoping that they will somehow find some common ground, realise that this is a fantastic piece of new software that has attracted a lot of users and try to use it to their advantage. perhaps using it to advertise their other products or learning from Scrabulous’ success, reinvent some more of their games? Social networking has made this game popular to thousands of new users that might have never found it entertaining before.

Online audience to be included in ABC figures

I have just read an interesting post from Roy Gleenslade reporting that online unique users and circulation figures will now be added together in a new report format for the first time - this is a big step forward.

He reports: "It will reveal that all-important measure known as "the reach" achieved by publications by detailing both month-on-month and year-on-year figures for on-line and newsprint.

"The new "multi-platform monthly report" will also break out figures by geographical region; the UK, Republic of Ireland and other countries.

"The initiative follows requests from advertisers, agencies and media owners because it will undoubtedly introduce greater transparency. It’s long overdue, but I know that ABC has been working as hard as possible to bring it about. Some media companies dragged their heels, I’m afraid."

I think this is interesting and it prompted a debate here at Wolfstar as to whether subscribers to the RSS feed, will or should be included too rather than just unique users and visits. A website can have a low number of visits one month but still have a huge number of subscribers who are all reading every post or article.

It is well documented that national and local newspaper circulation figures have been affected by the emergence of new media. On a local level here in Leeds, several of the Yorkshire Post’s business team have moved to a new venture called www.thebusinessdesk.com which is doing really well. Check out Seb’s post on it for more details.

Richard Bailey is attending/hosting an event tonight entitled "Print is Dead". However, I wonder if all these figures were added together in a detailed report if the title of the event would be altered to "Print is moving".

Cross posted: Norton’s Notes

Getting Ink Requests - live queries from journalists

Hot off the presses from the industrious hacks at Getting Ink is the shiny new Getting Ink Requests blog:

We’ve talked a lot over the last few months about disintermediation in the journalism process - how platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are allowing hacks to bypass PRs and contact case studies and commentators directly.

Sarah’s Facebook group seems to be working really well with almost 600 people signed up, but Sarah and I agree that not being able to export information or alert people to updates in the group is a snag. What we really need, we’ve decided, is something like the group, but which allows you to alert people to new requests, to share posts with friends who might be relevant, and turn up in relevant searches. So…a blog, then.

And here it is. The Getting Ink Requests blog, which will provide an informal, open platform for all sorts of media requests, including case studies, comments, freebies, review kit and whatever else the hacks can think of.

At this stage, it’s really an experiment so we’ll keep it fairly relaxed and see what does and doesn’t work. If you can help with a feature, there will be contact details on individual posts, or you can comment on the blog itself. If you want to post a request, you can also do that on the blog.

We’ll keep posts up there and archived so that, hopefully, they could eventually provide a resource for PRs looking for journalists with an interest in specific areas. Do take a look. Especially if you’re a children’s party planner or a neurologist…

All flacks should subscribe now, but please, please read the requests properly and don’t send the sort of dumb responses that gets PR a bad name!

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings

Online readership overtakes national newspapers

When I arrived at work this morning I found an email lurking in my inbox from a media monitoring company called Spectrum Analysis. The company sent us a press release on the growth of online media readership - this is a very interesting story to us obviously, it’s just a shame a slightly clumsy approach was used to send it.

Wolfstar are always interested in the growth of online media readership as most of our clients are using social media. Unfortunately, the approach was a little clumsy as the email was from a generic email address (very impersonal) and wasn’t addressed to any member here at Wolfstar. It also had no salutations on it, all we received was a straight press release - cold.

I have enclosed some quick tips on blogger relations - anyone else who wants to join in please feel free to add a comment and other tips below.

Some quick tips on how to approach a blogger:

1. Actually read their blog - several times first - subscribe to their feed
2. Make useful and constructive comments on topics which interest you
3. Don’t make blatant plugs for your own company straight away - this can cause irritation
4. Approach the blogger after he actually recognises your name. The approach should usually be personal but if it’s a team blog, address the team properly and say hello
5. Use simple public relations - make sure you relate to this public
6. Make sure the story is relevant
7. Apologise for the approach if it’s not relevant - these people aren’t journalists so take that into consideration

Anyway, after all that the story was of interest to us and it read as follows:

"DAILY ONLINE NEWS READERSHIP OVERTAKES NATIONAL"

NEWSPAPERS FOR KEY UK 15 TO 44 AGE GROUP

"London: 8 February, 2008.  Daily readership of online news has overtaken national newspapers for the 15 to 44 age group, one of the most important target audiences in the UK.  The findings, based on a sample of 1000 adults representative of the UK population, are published today in Spectrum Consulting’s Online Buzz Report 2008.  They reveal that 45% of the 15 to 44 age group read online news on a daily basis compared to just 38% who read newspapers."

To download a copy of the report go to: www.spectrum-analysis.com.

Next Page »